A barber in Boca Raton has been charged with attempted murder after he shot at a client, police said.
Boca Raton police received a delayed report of a shooting that occurred Monday evening in the parking lot at 625 N.E. Mizner Blvd. The caller told police that his barber, John Digiovanni, shot at him and his friend, who are both the barber’s clients, police said.
Detectives spoke with the caller and the friend, who told them Digiovanni, 35, hadn’t shown up to the friend’s scheduled hair appointments in the past two weeks. He reached out to Digiovanni on Monday to confront him about accepting appointments but not showing up, police said.
That’s when Digiovanni started yelling at him and threatening him, police said.
Later that night, the victim asked Digiovanni if they could meet in person to discuss what was bothering him, police said. According to what the victim told detectives, Digiovanni told him to meet at 625 N.E. Mizner Blvd. The victim drove to the location with his friend, the one who called police to report the shooting.
Video evidence corroborated what the men told detectives, but police did not say whether the victims or someone else recorded their encounter with Digiovanni or if it was surveillance footage.
The victim told detectives that when Digiovanni arrived, he started yelling and screaming from his car. The victim allegedly told Digiovanni he just wanted to talk, and approached the car, police said.
Digiovanni got out and pointed a gun at him, police said. He shot at them twice before returning to his car, police said. He fired at them one more time from his car before driving off, police said.
Neither of the men were injured, police said.
Police arrested Digiovanni on Wednesday and charged him with two counts of attempted first degree murder with a firearm.
Digiovanni remains in Palm Beach County jail.
Brooke Baitinger can be reached at: bbaitinger@sunsentinel.com, 954-422-0857 or Twitter: @bybbaitinger
